Drew Payne

I am setting up something that will happen later, something that Liam doesn't want but will give an unexpected outcome. The professionals in his care couldn't make any other choice but to reject the request for an interview, especially with Liam's age. But, after the previous chapter, where Liam said he felt safe at Nurton Cross, this is the outside world trying to creep inside the hospital walls.

Professionally, I've been part of so many different MDT meetings, in the past. Unfortunately, this story is told totally from Liam's point of view, so I couldn't show the workings of an MDT meeting. But I wanted to show the professionals, in Liam's life, working his good and that these people all care about him. It was also a chance for Mark and Mrs Stewart-Graham to publicly say what a farce his trial was. I wanted to show that Liam isn't just being held in this hospital, there is a whole team of people working towards his rehabilitation.

Liam heard many times talk about MDT meetings ever since he’d come to Nurton Cross. Sometimes they were talked about in almost hushed tones; other times kids on the ward excitedly talked about them, as they heralded their chance of discharge from there. It had been months before he learnt what MDT meant - Multi-Disciplinary Team meeting - though that explanation didn’t tell him what actually happened in one. But he’d never had one. And though they seemed a type of mystery, he didn’t wo

Thank you for such wonderful feedback, you make me blush. There is more to this story. I have a third act to it planned out and I am currently writing it.

Mrs Stewart-Graham is a successful barrister and Liam's case is the one that she feels guilty over. She is trying to relieve/exercise that guilt by visiting Liam, by seeing that he is doing well. Unfortunately, Liam's only fourteen and he doesn't understand what she needs to do, but he likes all the books. I wanted Mr Bear to show how young Liam is, how much he is still a child.

Yes Liam is happy, which is a horrible comment on his life. He lives in an adolescent secure hospital and it is better than his previous life. Mr Bear is one of the few people from that life who still cares about him.

The letter from Mrs Stewart-Graham had arrived on the ward a week and a day before her visit. It was waiting for him when he’d returned from the Education Centre. It had been opened and read before it reached him, but all their letters were - the few letters most people on the ward seemed to receive. The letter was brief, printed on stiff, thick paper, not the cheap printer paper they used in the Education Centre, but heavy paper that cried out that it was expensive. At the top of the page,

On a July evening, in 1991, three people are each caught in a moment of indecision, not knowing what the next right thing to do is. Helen has cooked a special, surprise meal for her husband, but he still hasn’t returned home. Paul has parked his car at the side of the road, but he doesn’t know where to drive to next. Craig is working late, but his mind isn’t on work. Moving Pictures is my newly published short story. It tells its story from the point-of-view of three different people, all caught in one moment in time, all trying to make the right decision. It is available on Smashwords, as an eBook only, but is free to download, or you can pay whatever you want to. Happy reading Drew

Thank you. I did set up, at the very beginning of this story, what an awful place Liam was in when he was discharged from Nurton Cross, but I also want to show how much Liam is benefitting from being at Nurton Cross. I need to do a balancing act, but I have so much of this story already planned. There is more to come.

Thank you. Liam needs a friend outside of the hospital, an adult to look out for him, and his awful mother won't do that. Having a friendship with Liam is also something positive for Mark. He isn't great at relationships, thanks to his crap parents, and his friendship with Liam is something positive for him, especially as he's in a parental role here.

It was the Saturday between that first Christmas and New Year. Though the ward was still decked out in all its Christmas decorations, it felt subdued. The excitement and activity of Christmas Day had faded away. Since breakfast, Liam had been sitting in the corner of one of the sofas in the Common Room trying to finish Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He had five new books to read but he had to finish his current one first: it was his personal rule. He was left alone that morning.

Thank you. There's no greater praise, for me, than being able to touch a reader, emotionally, with my writing.

I enjoyed creating her and she will be a good person in his life.

I first read some of Patrick Gale's books back in the 90s and he was different to so much of the books around then. I lost interest in him after reading Facing the Tank, plot wise it was such a mess. I came back to his work with this book and I was so surprised, it is so good. It is a pet hate of mine, historical novels that are full of modern attitudes. If you're going to write a historical novel you have to write about the attitudes then, and doesn't sugar-coat them. Oops, sorry but I climbed onto one of my soap boxes.

I used to carry books around with me, back and forth to work, until I got an e-reader. I read to cope with my daily commute, the London Underground doesn't have a great view out of the windows (!!). I love reading. I read Hickory Dickory Dock a long time ago but it was one of the best Poirot novels. It actually has quite a grubby, down beat setting, but Christie presents some interesting characters and a twisting plot. I have set myself the project of writing reviews of all the books I have read. I might not succussed but I'll enjoy trying. And I too like audio books too, I have them on when I'm working. (There's a good BBC radio adaption of The Unexpected Guest)

Thanks for your feedback. It means a lot. I am sorry about your mother. This story was based on things I've observed but it is typical of the things I write. I am fascinated by how characters react to difficult or strange circumstances. I also want to explore people's emotional responses. I want to try and get under the skin of my characters.

I based Liam's trial on a famous/infamous trial of two British 12 year old boys for murder. They were so pitifully under prepared for their trial. I'm afraid but British barristers don't coach their clients into how to give evidence and what to expect in court. I wanted Liam to not to know what to do when the judge entered to show how lost and out of place he was in court. Also, him having to sit on a cushion to be able to be seen over the edge of the dock was taken from real life.

Thanks for the feedback. This is one of the things I wanted to explore with this story, how under British law a 12 year old child can be treated as an adult when charged with a crime. I've worked with adolescents and they are NOT adults, they certainly don't adult reasoning abilities. Mark is Liam's solicitor, in court he'll have a barrister representing him, that is a different lawyer. The British legal system is complicated too. But Liam's barrister was one of my favourite characters to create here.

Thank you. This was actually an easy chapter to write. I've got a chapter, not the next one but one coming up, that isn't going to be easy to write but it has to be written because it is so important to the plot.

Thank you. I'm sorry for the long wait but I've been ill for the last year, and it took away so much of my writing mojo. I'm finally getting back on my feet and I really need to finish this story, if nothing else but to get these characters out of my head. I need to give Liam an ending, and there's still a couple of characters to introduce into this story. I am already working on the next chapters.

Thank you. Liam has had pretty sh*t Christmases, so here is one run by people who want to make it special and give him good memories. It also gave me the chance to explore the character of Janet. She's a person with a lot of responsibilities but what makes her tick. She's no Florence Nightingale but why is she in nursing. I wanted to explore that, and I like her character. It was also interesting to explore Christmas from the point of view of someone for whom wasn't that special, who finally understands why it is.

Thank you. I wanted to capture the joy of Christmas but I also wanted to compare it to the Christmases he had previously known, which were basically really crap by a very bad parent. I always wanted to write about people's generosity at Christmas.

His first Christmas on the ward seemed such a big deal: people were making so much of it, and that surprised him. Paper decorations started to appear over the ward, mainly along the ward’s main corridor. They were mostly flat, paper cut outs of Christmas trees, Father Christmases, Christmas presents, robins and such, all of them liberally highlighted with glitter. Added to these were paper chains and long strands of crepe paper generally twisted into a spiral, hung above doorways and windows, an

I've never managed to see this play on stage but I first heard it as a radio play, when I was a teenager. I was stunned and suprised by the twisting nature of the plot, and what twists. Only after it had finished did I realise it was by Christie. I had never thought of her as a playwright until then. I've since seen several of her plays and never been disappointed. Glad you enjoyed my review. I am enjoying writing them.

This play opens with a startling image. In a sitting room, at night, a man lies dead in his wheelchair while standing over him is his wife holding the gun that killed him. Onto this scene stumbles a man, a stranger to this household. But instead of calling for the police, or even calling for help, the man, the unexpected guest of the play's title, starts to coach the woman in how to get away with the murder of her husband. Agatha Christie had an equally successful career as a playwright as well as a novelist. She is Britain’s most successful woman playwright, her play The Mousetrap is the world's longest running play. But we often forget about this. The Unexpected Guest is a fine example of her murder mystery plays. This one opens with a corpse stage left, but she doesn't treat her plot like a typical detective story. Here the plot comes out of the characters' actions, their reactions to the murder. There is a police inspector and his sidekick sergeant, but these two are much more plot devices so we, the audience, can be told the physical facts of this murder and have the backstory of the dead man explained to us, and this corpse was asking for someone to shoot him. But the real crime solving comes from the interactions of the characters themselves. There are some of her stock characters here. The elderly woman who knows her son too well, the servant who wants to supplement their low wages with a bit of blackmail, and an abused wife who is far from a victim. She does handle these characters well, making the plot flow from them. She makes an interesting comment with the reactions of two of her characters. When a woman thinks a man committed murder for her, she becomes protective over him, standing by him and trying to defend him. When a man thinks a woman has killed for him, he wants to distance himself from her as quickly as possible, leaving her to her fate on her own. However, her treatment of the disabled characters is very of its time and creeks uncomfortably. The victim is a wheelchair-bound man who is so bitter and angry that he could drive anyone to kill him. There's a young man with learning difficulties who is overly excitable and easily manipulated. What is so enjoyable here is the twisting plot. At first we are given a thriller where the question is will this woman get away with murder; then the first twist turns it into a mystery were we don't know who the killer is. After that the plot delivers several twists ending with the last twist where one character is left alone on the stage as the final curtain falls. A play script, even the best play script ever written, is only the third of a great play, the other two-thirds being the acting, direction and staging. As good a read as this play script is, I would still much prefer to see a well-acted and staged production of this play. But plays are written to be acted and not just read. Find it here on Amazon